Monday, January 30, 2012

Personal Management, How You Can Accomplish Your Personal and Business Goals

Personal management is the process of planning and fulfilling personal goals for your life. These goals include all pertinent areas of your life, like business, career, family, health, finance, time management and education.

Many people struggle with knowing which of these to do when and how much, without feeling totally overwhelmed and stressed. That is why knowing the one thing to do in any given moment is the true secret of achievement at home and work. That is what personal management is all about.

Brian Tracy addresses this issue in his book entitled, "Focal Point: A Proven System to Simplify Your Life, Double Your Productivity, and Achieve All Your Goals."

In this article, you will learn some tips from this book to help you develop clarity and satisfaction, both professionally and personally.

Are you frustrated with too many professional and personal demands on your time?

Are you working long hours? Ir the quality of your time at home being affected by the quantity of time you spend at work? Do you feel overwhelmed? Are you unsatisfied and stressed out?

This book proposes that the secret to high achievers is their ability to know their focal point at all times. The focal point, as defined by Tracy, is the one thing you should do to get the best possible outcome at any given moment.

Here are key concepts on personal management covered in this book:

1. You should determine the things you do that give the greatest value to you and your business and spend more time doing those activities. By spending more time doing those things, you will get better at them and it will take less time to accomplish those activities.

2. You should determine the activities that contribute little value to you and your business and make up your mind to either delegate them or eliminate them altogether.

3. Personal management includes continuous learning for personal and professional development to achieve any goal you set.

c. Excellence orientation -- commit to becoming excellent; be in the top 10%

d. Result orientation -- focus on results; successful people are paid for outcomes, not activities

e. Solution orientation -- think about how the problem can be solved, not about who to blame

f. Growth orientation -- become a continuous learner

g. Action orientation -- have a sense of urgency to accomplish your goals

5. Personal management requires a strategic plan for your business and personal life. You will need to identify what things are important, what you will do to achieve your goals, and what steps you will take to accomplish your goals.

6. For personal management to work there are seven things you should make time for every day:

a. Goal setting - what will you accomplish today?

b. Planning and organizing - how will you accomplish those things?

c. Priority setting - when will you accomplish those things?

d. Concentration - focus on the desired outcomes

e. Exercise and nutrition - maintain good health

f. Learning and growth - if you aren't getting better, you are getting worse.

g. Important people in your life - maintain relationships with family and friends

The personal management points covered in this article are worth a second read, particularly when you start to feel overwhelmed and stressed. However, the book, Focal Point, covers these points in more detail and offers a unified approach to accomplishing your goals at home and work. I recommend you read this book. If you do, you will want to re-read it when you start to lose your focus or feel stressed out.